The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
APOSTATE CHICAGO CHURCH REJECTS HYMNS WRITTEN BY “WHITE PEOPLE” – First United Church of Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, “will not be using any music or liturgy written or composed by white people,” according to their website. They are “fasting from whiteness.” Instead, they will use the “voices of Black people, indigenous people, and people of color.” The church, which is pastored by a white man named John Edgerton, “values people of all races, ethnicities, cultural identities, gender identities, sexual orientations…” A biblical church doesn’t choose hymns on the basis of the skin color of the composers. A biblical church cares absolutely zero about skin color, knowing that all men are one blood and there is no such thing as “race.” But a biblical church cares deeply about biblical morality and doctrine. A biblical church believes the Bible’s teaching that God made man male and female. A biblical church chooses hymns based on whether they glorify Jesus Christ as God and Saviour and whether the doctrine is sound according to the faith once delivered to the saints.
CHINA MESSAGING APP CENSORS THE WORD “CHRIST” – The following is excerpted from China Aid, Apr. 4, 2022: “Since the Chinese Communist Party’s ‘Measures for the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services’ came into effect on March 1, Christian WeChat accounts and groups became the main area of suppression. Early Rain Covenant Church’s Ran Yunfei has a WeChat group called ‘How to read.’ Group members recommended book titles and voted on them with WeChat’s built-in voting. During the most recent round, group members recommended the following books … ‘Imitation of Christ’ by Thomas à Kempis … However, the voting was not able to pass WeChat’s censorship, showing the following message: ‘The word Christ you are trying to publish violates regulations on Internet Information Services, including but not limited to the following categories: pornography, gambling, and drug abuse, excessive marketing, incitement. The issue can be resolved through one of the following: (1) Edit your content (2) Submit for review.’ On December 20, 2021, China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs published the ‘Measures for the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services’ on its official website. It was created through joint efforts of five departments: State Administration for Religious Affairs, Cyberspace Administration of China, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, and Ministry of State Security. … Unless the conditions specified by article 15 and article 16 are met, no organization and individual may teach on the internet, conduct religious education and training, publish sermons, repost or link related content, organize religious activities on the internet, or live broadcast or record and broadcast religious ceremonies.” NOTE FROM D. CLOUD: We don’t recommend the book by Kempis or any of the contemplative prayer materials. See the free eBook Evangelicals and Contemplative Prayer at www.wayoflife.org.
UNNECESSARY COVID DEATHS CAUSED BY STRANGE BAN ON REPURPOSED DRUGS – The following is excerpted from “Did Dismissals of Safe Outpatient Drugs Cause Needless Covid Deaths?” The Federalist, Feb. 2, 2022: “Dr. Miguel Sierra-Hoffman, an associate professor of infectious disease at Baylor Scott & White Hospital and of pulmonary medicine at Texas A&M University, who has overseen the care of thousands of COVID patients at multiple hospitals, remains convinced that the embrace of outpatient treatments early on would have been a difference maker–and an economical one. ‘If we had given people aspirin, ivermectin, colchicine, and if they get complicated, a little dexamethasone, we could have saved the world with one dollar.’ For his part, Sen. Ron Johnson [R-Wis.] blames public health authorities for orchestrating a broader campaign against early treatment with repurposed drugs. ‘Rather than seriously consider evidence showing the potential of early treatments including ivermectin, your agencies prefer to mischaracterize, conflate and misconstrue anything that goes against the mainstream narrative and the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry,’ he wrote in an October 2021 letter to Biden administration health officials.”
PRAYER AGAINST BIG TECH CENSORSHIP – Man’s most valuable privilege is prayer. God made man in His own image so that man can know Him. Man did not evolve; he is not an animal. Man rebelled and fell into condemnation, but God has provided redemption at great cost through His Son Jesus Christ. Fallen man, who is separated from God by his sin, can be reconciled and can walk with God as did Enoch of old. Nothing is more wonderful. God invites, encourages, exhorts, and commands His redeemed children to pray in His will and to expect answers. The Lord Jesus said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). The apostle John said, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5:14-15). God has expressed His will in Scripture. We are told in 2 Thessalonians that the devil’s mystery of iniquity is at work in this world toward the goal of putting his man on the throne, but it will happen in God’s time. “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed…” (2 Th. 2:6-8). The mystery of iniquity is anti-Christ. It is everything that is against God. It is false religion, false Christianity, heresies, apostasies, Humanism, Evolution, Marxism, Socialism, anarchy, lawlessness, debauchery, globalism, totalitarianism, and much more. But God is restraining the mystery of iniquity, present active continual tense, and He will restrain until His good business with the Church Age is finished. God holds the reigns of the times and seasons (Daniel 2:20-21), and the Church’s Great Commission is in effect to the very end of the age, as Christ said in that context, “lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Mt. 28:20). Until then, God will restrain the devil’s program, and God’s people, as laborers together with God, can pray for restraint. So I pray that God will confound the totalitarian spirit in Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube, etc. In today’s context, these are more like telephone companies and postal systems. Though privately owned, they are public carriers of information, and they should not be engaged in censorship. The Antichrist will be totalitarianism personified, but it is not his time yet, so we pray against the spirit of antichrist that is in proud men in high places who think they are in control of “right-speak.” John told us that there were many antichrists even in his day, 2,000 years ago (1 Jo. 2:18). Whatever God is doing, God’s people can have full confidence in praying for that thing. He has told us to pray for those at every level of government, “For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Ti. 2:1-4). It is obvious that God wants to use the prayers of His redeemed people to change things in this present world. That is a wonderful thing, but it must be acted on. If God’s redeemed people would rise up and get on praying ground and really pray, there is no telling what God would do. Moses prayed, and God did not destroy Israel. Hannah prayed, and God gave her a son who did great and mighty things. Hezekiah and Isaiah prayed, and God destroyed the most powerful army on earth. That God is not dead.
FACULTY OF BAPTIST UNIVERSITY SUPPORTS HOMOSEXUAL STUDENT UNION – Baylor University, known as the largest Baptist university in the world, is now openly supporting “homosexual Christianity.” On Aug. 18, 2019, Linda Livingstone, Baylor President, said in a letter to students, faculty, and staff that the school is “committed to providing a loving and caring community for all students–including our LGBTQ students … Students are not disciplined or expelled from Baylor for same-sex attraction. In addition to the ongoing presence of many caring, trusted faculty and staff members, Baylor provides resources for LGBTQ students through the Title IX Office, Bias Response Team, Chaplain’s Office and Spiritual Life, and the Counseling Center. Baylor counselors do not practice or condone conversion or reparative therapy. With this said, we understand that we must do more to demonstrate love and support for our students who identify as LGBTQ.” On Feb. 8, 2021, Baylor’s Faculty Senate passed a resolution supporting the establishment of a homosexual student organization called Gamma Alpha Upsilon (“Faculty Senate passes resolution,” Baylor Lariat, Feb. 9, 2021). The vote was 26 in favor, 9 opposed, and 4 abstaining. The school’s website posted the following statement; “We acknowledge the complexity of issues surrounding human sexuality and desire to engage in this conversation with humility, prayerfulness and convicted civility.” The issue of homosexuality is clear when considered biblically and a Christian school should have no “conversation” on sexuality that is not biblically based.
THE VERY HAIRS OF YOUR HEAD – The following is from CreationMoments.com, April 5, 2022: “The hair that you see is nothing more than dead protein that is produced by the cells of the hair follicle anchored inside the layers of the skin. The total number of hair follicles on the adult body is about 5 million; only about 100,000 of them are on the scalp. Each hair grows out of one follicle for about three to five years. Then the hair is shed and the follicle rests for about three months before starting to grow hair again. So, you see, once you know how many hairs are on your head, it’s still no easy job to keep track of their changing number. The average scalp hair grows about one inch every two or three months. This means that each day, your head is growing the equivalent of one hair, 100 feet long–that’s nearly seven miles per year! Yes, it’s true–the Creator cares so much about you that He knows from moment to moment how many hairs are on your head. Author: Paul A. Bartz. Ref.: Science Digest, June, 1979, page 71.”
Friday Church News Notes, April 15, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
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